Busted: Promise Harbor, Book 3 (9 page)

“Do you need backup, Detective?” Mrs. Brewster prompted, her voice carrying from the front of the church.

“That won’t be necessary,” Hayley called back. Unless Gavin and Josh were going at it in the back parking lot.

Maybe they were better off going outside to see what was happening.

Unsure, she glanced at the stirring crowd inside, then back at Jackson. It didn’t take a genius to know he was about five seconds from going outside without her. Maybe less.

Decision made, she went with the front door instead of backtracking to the side one. Fewer people would be tempted to follow them that way. Jackson kept up with her and the door closed behind them, silencing the commotion inside.

They rounded the corner, but by the time they reached the side door, everyone else had disappeared.

“Where did they go?”

Hayley shook her head, wondering the same thing. She scanned the cars parked at the other end of the lot, then held her hand to her head salute-style to shield her eyes from the sun as they turned the next corner and stepped into the bright afternoon sunshine.

Still no sign of them.

Jackson led the way in heading around to the other side facing the street. Hayley dug her cell phone out of the small purse around her wrist. Jackson fished his phone from his pocket.

Gavin’s number went straight to voice mail when she dialed. She left a brief message of, “Call me back, Gav,” and glanced expectantly at Jackson.

He shook his head a minute later to indicate Josh wasn’t picking up either. Hayley didn’t waste time calling Allie since it was doubtful she’d walked down the aisle with her phone on her.

“What the hell was your friend thinking?”

“I have no idea,” she answered honestly, but clearly Gavin hadn’t been able to sit back and let Allie marry someone else after all.

“Did you know he was going to do this? Aren’t you his best friend?”

“He apparently forgot to text me that he planned to storm the church.”

“You could try not sounding half-impressed by that.”

She met Jackson’s scowl. “If Gavin wanted to talk to Allie, he probably should have gone about it another way.”

That answer wasn’t good enough to appease a frustrated best man. “She was marrying Josh. Maybe he should have left her alone.”

“Their situation is complicated.” And getting more complicated by the minute. Where the hell had they disappeared to?

“Did they or did they not break up?” Jackson pressed.

“Yes—”

“Then he should have stayed away from her.”

Annoyed that Jackson was blaming Gavin for everything when Allie clearly hadn’t put up a fight, she matched his glare. “You couldn’t possibly have your head shoved so far up your ass to think it’s that black and white?”

“It is.”

She blew out a breath. “If you hear from Josh, let me know, okay?” She walked away without having decided the best way to track her friend.

“Where are you going?”

“To see if any of Gavin’s family knew he was back in town.” She highly doubted it though, given his abrupt entrance, but she couldn’t sit and wait for him to call her back either.

She left Jackson at the curb and headed back into the church. Navigating the crowd while avoiding the questions fired at her proved more of a headache than she anticipated. Mrs. Brewster was still at the front of the church, with Josh only a few feet away.

Gavin and Allie weren’t with him.

People around Hayley were talking about an announcement Mrs. Brewster had made about everyone heading over to the Promise Harbor Inn since the reception was already paid for.

So the wedding was off.

Guests who hadn’t already started trickling out of the church became more interested in a reception and stopped approaching Hayley to ask questions she didn’t have answers for. Squeezing between people crowded in the main aisle, Hayley tried to get to the front. Josh would know what happened to Allie and Gavin, though there was a good chance he might be as annoyed with her as Jackson was.

Josh had disappeared out the side door by the time Hayley got fed up with the remaining people hanging around, gossiping about the whole thing, and ordered them out of her way. With at least a dozen people staring holes into her back, she went after Josh.

A few seconds later, she spotted him sliding into his car out front.

“He’s going to the reception.” Matt jogged over to her. “That was something to see in there. Gavin’s not on drugs, is he?”

She rolled her eyes and dialed Gavin again. No answer.

“You want to talk to Josh, I’m assuming?”

Hayley nodded. “Mind giving me a ride?”

“No problem.” Matt glanced around. “What happened to Jackson?” His eyes narrowed the moment his friend’s name left his lips. “I heard some interesting things before Gavin decided to act out a chick flick.”

Hayley spotted Jackson chatting with a small group of women, but turned in the opposite direction to follow Matt to his car. “What kinds of things?”

Her twin’s eyes took on a protective light she hadn’t seen since she’d kicked Eric out of their apartment. “Like how you and Jackson showed up looking like you’d just rolled out of bed.”

Chapter Four

“More like a tree,” Hayley muttered, pushing junk off the passenger-side seat of Matt’s rust bucket of a sedan.

“What?”

“Never mind.”

Hayley tried three more times before leaving another message for Gavin. She hadn’t a clue whether Allie was with him or if she’d told him to go fly a kite back in Alaska. She didn’t want to think how Gavin would take that kind of news after pulling a stunt like that at the church.

Surprisingly, the Promise Harbor Inn was already swarming with cars by the time they arrived. She’d hoped most people would realize the show was over, but many had turned out. For the food or more drama?

“Maybe I should try to find a spot around back.”

“Probably already packed.”

“Yeah, but you might not get swallowed by the mob if we go in the rear entrance.”

As much as she appreciated her brother trying to make things easier on her, she pointed to a spot that opened up on the left. Matt turned out to be bang on, and a few people made an immediate beeline for her when she climbed out of the car.

Locking her patience firmly in place, she answered as best she could.

“No, there was no warrant out for Gavin’s arrest.”

“No, he and Allie weren’t having an affair.”

“No, he did not kidnap Allie.”

Even Gavin wasn’t that crazy, though dozens of people had probably already made up their minds about them having an affair.

She ignored the questions about how long she and Jackson had been together. If she hadn’t recognized so many faces that she’d gone to school with, she would have thought she’d been cornered by the press.

Half an hour passed from the time they left the church until she reached the banquet room where the reception was being held and she spotted Josh. People were giving him a wide berth, and given the don’t-fuck-with-me expression on his face, Hayley couldn’t blame them.

“We need a drink.” Matt reappeared at her side long enough to tell her that, and then was gone, heading toward the bar.

More than a few people shot her curious glances, talking in hushed voices that weren’t any quieter than when they’d been in high school. Some people never grew up.

“Your pal made quite the entrance, Hayls.”

Seriously? She gritted her teeth at the sound of Eric’s voice, but kept her face neutral. Maybe she shouldn’t have left Jackson behind at the church, although she’d dealt with Eric and his ego long before Jackson Knight rolled back into town.

“You should have talked him out of making such a complete ass of himself.”

She didn’t bother telling him she’d been just as surprised by Gavin’s unexpected arrival as everyone else. Ignoring him seemed like the better play.

“I told you before that you could do better at picking your friends. Gavin was always beneath you.”

Having heard her friend’s reputation and motives called into question one too many times in such a short span, she felt herself snap. Maybe it was because she felt compelled to defend her best friend even when she didn’t even know what was going through his head, or maybe because Eric was the last person who had the right to question anyone else’s character.

Either way, she grabbed Eric’s shirt and yanked him forward.

He was standing close enough that no one noticed when the move took him by surprise, letting her jerk him close.

“At least Gavin stands up for what he wants and to hell with what everyone else thinks. Someone people could stand to learn a lot from. Someone brave enough to take that kind of risk. And whatever happens is between Gavin and Allie.” She tacked on the latter in case he was digging for anything he could turn into a local headline for his family’s newspaper.

“And Josh.” Jackson joined them, his hands tucked casually in his pants pockets. “Between Gavin, Allie and Josh.”

Eric jerked free of her hold, and for a moment she thought he might apologize for sinking low enough to criticize Gavin just to get to her. Then he glanced back and forth between her and Jackson, clearly picking up on the tension and enjoying it.

Bastard.

Eric walked away, smoothing out the shirt she’d wrinkled. She ignored the increasing stares from the handful of people close enough to have overhead their conversation.

She blew out a breath, wondering if she was better off leaving. Gavin and Allie wouldn’t be showing up here, that much she could guarantee, and she wasn’t so sure Josh knew anything if he was hanging around.

“What did you ever see in that asshole?”

“I was young and stupid,” she offered, wishing it were a valid excuse. But Eric was the last person she wanted to waste time thinking about right now, so she didn’t elaborate on her bad judgment.

Across the room she spotted Josh talking to his ex-girlfriend, Devon—the woman who’d sat beside Hayley in the church, though she hadn’t realized it at the time.

Talking to his ex was a little convenient, wasn’t it? She cringed the moment that thought went through her head. She wasn’t any better than Eric if she let herself go there.

She checked her phone again—no new messages—then decided to talk to Josh after all on the off chance he knew what happened to Gavin and Allie.

“He doesn’t know anything,” Jackson said when she made a move to go around him.

“Where are they?”

“He doesn’t know that either, but she left with Gavin.”

She felt Josh look in her direction, and would have walked over if not for Jackson standing in her way.

“Do you know where they’d go?”

Hayley shook her head.

“Would you tell me if you did?” When she didn’t answer right away, he sighed.

“He wouldn’t stay in town,” she offered. She knew that much. He wasn’t close enough to his family. That left her. If Gavin had plans to lay low in Promise Harbor, she would have heard from him by now.

“Where exactly does he live? Josh wasn’t sure.”

“Alaska.” But she couldn’t imagine him talking Allie into going all the way across the country when he’d just turned up out of the blue. And Allie had been too stunned at his arrival to have known he’d been planning on bursting in like that.

“Here.” Matt shoved a glass in her hand. “You’re going to need this. Eric’s dad is here and he’s talking to your boss.”

Hayley felt a migraine coming on. The last thing she needed was Eric’s dad demanding answers like he had any stake in the outcome. It was a wonder he hadn’t placed a call to the mayor.

Her mother had had a previous engagement that kept her from attending the wedding, and Hayley couldn’t have been more grateful for that. There would have been no dodging questions from her mother with the town’s most influential businessman looking for information.

She took a long, deep drink, nearly choking on the vodka. She peered into the glass. “Is there actually any orange juice in here?”

Matt shrugged. “I told them to make a double. You may need it if Mom calls you.”

“Great.” What she really needed to do was go before anyone else, especially her mother, tried to take advantage of her personal relationship with Gavin to satisfy their own curiosity.

“How’s Josh doing?” Matt asked.

“As well as he can be, considering his bride left him at the altar.” The last part was directed at Hayley.

She bristled at the implied accusation. “You’ll have better luck with that coaching job than waiting for me to apologize for my friend.”

“I’d settle for you sounding like you at least feel bad for Josh.”

“You’re up for a coaching job?” Matt interjected, trying to change the subject.

They both ignored him.

“He doesn’t exactly look torn up at the moment.” She nodded to where Josh stood with his head bent close to Devon’s. The comment was out before she could take it back, but the way Jackson looked at the pair made her think maybe she wasn’t reading too much into the situation after all.